Word.ws English Dictionary

diallel

diallel adjective: involving crosses between several or all possible combinations.

Adjective

diallel (not comparable)

  1. Involving crosses between several or all possible combinations.
    • Nine varieties were chosen for a diallel crossing1970, David William Burrows, Snap-back and Lodging Studies of a Nine Barley Variety Diallel Cross, page 15
    • The main difference with design II is that the same individuals are used as parents for the diallel mating design (individuals are used both as male and female).1988, Arnel R. Hallauer, Marcelo J. Carena, J.B. Miranda Filho, Quantitative Genetics in Maize Breeding, second edition, →ISBN, page 119
  2. (rare) Of lines: Meeting and intersecting; not parallel.
    • […] like conditions and common ends as the ideal and goal of human effort are attained along parallel and not diallel lines in all the diversities of human application and invention.1900, Official Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the National Editorial Association, page 99
    • Fundamental to this new theory is the discovery of diallel, gravitational-field lines. These connect the two bodies — providing a path for the gravitational information to flow. To see the evidence of these diallel lines in nature requires a paradigm shift away from the traditional view of...2000, David W. Allan, Jeff Lorbeck, New Gravitational Theory with Experimental Validation, page 2

Noun

diallel (plural diallels)

  1. A set of all possible pairs of items from a specified set of items, especially when used for a study of diallel crosses.
    • Pollinations in 1956 and 1957 produced seed for eight replications of all 78 combinations of a complete half diallel, excluding selfs.1978, E. B. Snyder, Gene Namkoong, Inheritance in a Diallel Crossing Experiment with Longleaf Pine, page 2
    • However, complex gene action involving nonallelic interaction was found in the original 6×6 diallel.1991, Rice Genetics II, page 287
  2. A form of logical fallacy in which a proposition that is required to prove another proposition can only be proved by means of assuming the truth of the proposition one is trying to prove; circular reasoning.
    • Fifth is the diallel (ó διάλληλος τρóπος)—petitio principii—the fallacy of circle, or the method of showing that a proof which is employed to establish the truth of a proposition, can itself only be proved by the proposition in question: as for example, "if anyone should infer the authenticity of a...1871, Thomas Woodhouse Levin, Six Lectures Introductory to the Philosophical Writings of Cicero, page 110
    • In particular, Huet is said to apply the five tropoi of Agrippa (viz. relativity, diaphonia or disagreement, hypothesis or begging the question, infinite regress, and diallel or circular argument) to the cogito, the criterion of clarity and distinctness, and the proofs of the existence of God.2008, Thomas M. Lennon, The Plain Truth: Descartes, Huet, and Skepticism, page 50

Examples of diallel in a sentence

  • The diallel mating design is particularly well suited to characterizing genetic effects of inbred lines and their hybrid combinations .2005, Maydica, page 148:
  • Fundamental to this new theory is the discovery of diallel, gravitational-field lines.2000, David W. Allan, Jeff Lorbeck, New Gravitational Theory with Experimental Validation, page 2:
  • […] connecting diallel lines which provide not only particle flow between the bodies, but also the flow of photon and gravitational information as well […]2020, Jean de Climont, The Worldwide List of Alternative Theories and Critics, page 63:
  • In a diallel, a set of genotypes are crossed in all possible combinations.2012, H.K. Jain, M.C. Kharkwal, Plant Breeding: Mendelian to Molecular Approaches, page 526:

Forms of diallel

pluraldiallels

Origin of diallel

From Ancient Greek.

Words formed from diallel

Questions about diallel

What does diallel mean?
Diallel means involving crosses between several or all possible combinations.
How do you use diallel in a sentence?
The diallel mating design is particularly well suited to characterizing genetic effects of inbred lines and their hybrid combinations .
What part of speech is diallel?
Diallel can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near diallel in the dictionary

  1. dialled in
  2. dialled into
  3. dialled it in
  4. dialled out
  5. dialled up
  6. diallel
  7. diallelic
  8. diallelism
  9. diallelous
  10. diallels
  11. diallelus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: diallel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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